Old Swain County Courthouse

Courthouse Setting

Bryson City, on the Tuckasegee River above Fontana Dam, is the seat of Swain County government. In a flat valley, surrounded by low mountains, the small town provides lodging and shopping for travelers in the area. The old county courthouse is sited on a corner at the intersection of Main and Fry Streets – the crossing of Bryson City’s major business streets. A war memorial, historic markers, flowering trees and bushes, plus an ever-flowing drinking fountain enhance the neat courthouse property.

Courthouse History

The county’s first court was held in a log house, five miles west of Bryson City, previously known as Chatham. The first courthouse was constructed in 1872. The main floor of the building was used both for county offices and for court. The jail was located on the lower level and could be reached only by lowering a ladder through a door in the floor above. This building soon burned, and a second one was constructed in 1880.

In 1908, the Swain County Commissioners ordered the construction of a new courthouse, and they appointed Frank P. Milburn of Washington, D.C. and R. S. Smith as architects. Milburn was a well-known architect who designed many public buildings in North Carolina and throughout the South. Smith worked in Asheville, first with Richard Morris Hunt at Biltmore Village, and then independently. Falls City Construction Company, of Louisville, Kentucky, built the structure which cost approximately $35,000. The commissioners authorized the company to get “a tower clock with metal Bell for a cost of $850.00” in the new courthouse.

Architectural Description

The courthouse built in 1908 was the most ambitious structure in Bryson City. The building is a large, early Neo-Classical Revival style building set on a spacious corner lot and joined to the county jail and sheriff’s office by an enclosed second story crosswalk.

The two-story stuccoed courthouse is a three-part composition. The central block has clipped corners and a hipped roof and is fronted by a pedimented four-columned Ionic portico. Two-story flat roof wings project laterally beyond the core. The south façade has a pedimented entrance pavilion divided into three bays by Ionic pilasters. A heavy three-part cornice wraps around the building which is crowned with an octagonal Neo-Classical cupola containing clock faces on four sides.

The interior of the old courthouse is a transverse hall plan with offices on the first floor and a courtroom and offices on the second. Most of the finishing details are intact and include a pressed tin ceiling with a classical egg and dart crown mold pattern and plain board door surrounds in the courtroom.